Battling Ivanovic beats Jankovic, advances to Los Angeles final

World No.5 Ana Ivanovic extended her head-to-head superiority over Jelena Jankovic to 4-1 defeating her 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in an all-Serbian semifinal at the East West Bank Classic.

The Ivanovic vs. Jankovic match was a real thriller in which Ana showed her fighting spirit, and off course, her powerful serve, shooting 12 aces. I think that the best thing about Ana is that she plays point by point, which enables her to recover when she’s losing. In the Saturday’s semifinal, the 19-year-old fought off two match points, and came back from near-defeat on numerous other occasions throughout the match. She was as fantastic as in the Wimbledon quarterfinals against Nicole Vaidisova. Congratulations!

And look what Jankovic said about her compatriot: “I felt like I was playing against a guy, the way her serves were coming at me. It’s sometimes scary, and when she starts to scream, I’m like, ‘Come on.’ She’s quite a powerful, big girl.”

In the final, Ivanovic will face Nadia Petrova who didn’t even need to play, since her semifinal opponent, top-seeded Maria Sharapova, pulled out 20 minutes ahead of the match with a lower left leg strain. In my opinion, Ivanovic is highly likely to clinch her second title of the season.

Note: Ana Ivanovic will rise to a career-high ranking of fourth, dislodging Svetlana Kuznetsova, in next week’s WTA Tour rankings.